Monday, January 24, 2011

Great.
Here I am, recommending the close-out of an options trade that tripled in 15 days:Molycorp: All Right You Kids, Everybody Out of the Pool (MCP)
That was on Wednesday the 19th with the stock at $45.25.
By the close on Friday it had dropped another $2.26 to $42.99. And down $1.19 in this morning's pre-market trade.
Now this news comes out.
In the words of Jimmy James*:

I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung.

From SoCal's Press-Enterprise:

An environmental group has filed a lawsuit contending the federal government's "fast track" approval of a solar energy development -- already under construction in northeast San Bernardino County -- violated several laws.

The Western Watersheds Project, which works to protect watershed areas in six western states, wants a federal court to rescind the approvals and halt construction.

The complaint, filed Friday, names as defendants the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other federal officials.

BrightSource Energy Co. broke ground in October on the 5.6-square-mile solar field in the Ivanpah Valley off Interstate 15 near Primm, Nev. The project was approved in an expedited process intended to help energy developers meet federal deadlines to qualify for stimulus subsidies....MORE

So what's the Molycorp angle?
A quick look at GoogleMaps shows MCP's Mountain Pass mine is less than 10 miles from the BrightSource site.
Molycorp needs a planned 8 1/2 mile natural gas pipline and the pipeline is scheduled to run through the area the tortoises are going to be relocated to. Here's "Kern River Gas Transmission Company; Notice of Application" in the Federal Register Dec. 28.

The BrightSource project is interesting as it pits enviro vs. enviro, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being figurehead-in-chief for BrightSource. See "Solar: Robert Kennedy on Being Subversive"'
(his cousin Maria Shriver is married to the former governor who's admin gave the state approvals)

I may have to rethink the February puts but man-oh-mandingo the premium is steep (big volatility built into the price).
*Last seen in our October 2010 repost "Thoughts on Markets, Investing and Life':

Second only to "Super Karate Monkey Death Car"** in the depth of it's profound understanding of the market is NewsRadio's Season 3 Episode 9:

Jimmy: Be careful, Beth, because the stock market can be a cruel mistress.Beth: Well, so can I, but that's not how I want to make my money any more....